IN BRIEF

The old tax regime allows salaried taxpayers a set of deductions beyond the familiar section 80C limit — health premiums for self and parents under 80D, an extra NPS deduction under 80CCD(1B), home-loan interest, education-loan interest, deposit interest, donations, and disability-linked deductions under 80DD and 80U — none of which the new regime permits.

Every March, the same conversation repeats in offices across India. Someone discovers — in the last week of the financial year — that the old regime had room for far more than their ₹1.5 lakh of 80C, and the year is already closed. The deductions were never hidden. They were just never read together, in one place, by the person paying the tax.

One condition before the list: all nine of these live in the old regime. The new regime, now the default, switches nearly all of them off in exchange for lower rates. So this list matters if you have compared both regimes and the old one wins for you — or if you are deciding. Here is what salaried people most often leave unclaimed.

1. Section 80C — the full ₹1.5 lakh, not the part your employer sees

The known one, still under-used. The ₹1,50,000 ceiling is a combined basket — EPF, PPF, ELSS, life insurance premium, home-loan principal, children's tuition fees, five-year deposits — and your payroll only sees the pieces routed through salary. Investments you make directly count too, provided you declare them. Plenty of people sit at ₹1.1 lakh of a ₹1.5 lakh room simply because two proofs never reached the payroll team.

2. Section 80D on your parents' health policy — a separate bucket

Your own family's health premium earns up to ₹25,000. Your parents' premium is a second, separate bucket: another ₹25,000, rising to ₹50,000 if either parent is a senior citizen — and ₹50,000 for your own bucket too once you are one. Families routinely insure the parents and then forget the deduction exists, because the policy sits in a different name and a different drawer. It is the single most-missed item on this list.

3. Section 80CCD(1B) — the extra ₹50,000 NPS room above 80C

Contributions to your NPS Tier I account earn their own deduction of up to ₹50,000 over and above the 80C ceiling — taking total retirement-linked room to ₹2 lakh. It is missed because people file NPS under 80C in their heads and stop when that fills. The two sections are separate doors. If you hold an NPS account and your 80C is already full, this is found money.

4. Home-loan interest under section 24(b) — up to ₹2 lakh

For a self-occupied house, interest on the housing loan is deductible up to ₹2,00,000 a year, quite apart from the principal sitting in 80C. Salaried buyers claim the principal (payroll asks for it) and forget the interest certificate, which the bank issues separately and nobody chases. If the house is let out, the interest treatment changes — but the certificate matters either way. Ask your bank for it every year, in writing.

5. Section 80E — education-loan interest, with no rupee ceiling

Interest on a loan taken for the higher education of yourself, your spouse, your children, or a student you legally guard — deductible in full, no cap, for up to eight years from when repayment starts. Only the interest, never the principal. It is missed mostly at the second job: the loan was taken years ago, the EMI is a habit, and nobody connects the interest certificate to the return.

6. Sections 80TTA and 80TTB — the interest your savings already earned

Up to ₹10,000 of savings-account interest is deductible under 80TTA if you are under sixty. Senior citizens get the far better 80TTB instead: up to ₹50,000 across savings, fixed and recurring deposit interest. Tiny numbers next to the others on this list — which is precisely why they get skipped. The interest is already declared in your return as income; claiming the deduction against it takes one line.

7. Section 80G — donations, claimed with the receipt and the rules

Donations to specified funds and institutions earn 100% or 50% deduction depending on the recipient, some subject to a cap of 10% of your gross total income, and donations in cash above ₹2,000 earn nothing. It is missed for the least technical reason on this list: the receipt is in an email nobody opens at filing time. Donate by bank transfer, keep the 80G certificate with the year's tax folder, claim it.

8. Section 80DD — a dependant with a disability

If you maintain a dependant — spouse, child, parent, sibling — with a disability, 80DD gives a flat deduction of ₹75,000, rising to ₹1,25,000 for severe disability, against expenditure on treatment, training, rehabilitation or an approved deposit scheme for their maintenance. Flat means the deduction does not chase bills rupee for rupee, but it does need the medical certificate in the prescribed form. Families who qualify often simply never hear of it.

9. Section 80U — the same support, when the disability is your own

80U mirrors 80DD for the taxpayer: a resident individual with a disability claims ₹75,000 flat, or ₹1,25,000 for severe disability, with the medical authority's certificate. It needs no employer involvement and no investment — only the certificate and the claim, neither of which appears on any payroll checklist I have seen. If it applies to you, it applies every year.

Add the realistic pieces together — a completed 80C, parents on 80D, the NPS top-up, home-loan interest — and a salaried household can be looking at deductions well beyond ₹4 lakh in the old regime. Whether that beats the new regime's lower rates is a calculation, not a guess, and it takes ten minutes with real numbers.

If you would rather have the comparison done on your actual salary structure, that is the first thing our income tax return filing desk does each season — both regimes, your figures, one clear answer.